Finding what is ours to do
and doing it
when, where and how it needs to be done
in each situation as it arises
is asking a lot of each of us
all of the time.
But it never gets more difficult than that.

What is your "thing,"
you know that thing that you do
that you do best
and love to do most?
All of them.
What are they.

I love to look out the window,
drink coffee,
read, write, ask questions,
follow my curiosity,
make observations,
sit quietly,
go for a walk,
consider my options
and my chances.
Ponder what's for lunch.
And do what's called for
in and around these things.

That's what I call "Really Living."

We are likely to grow weary with the situation at hand.

Day after day of indelible stupidity mascaraing 
as The President of Unsurpassed Wisdom, Leadership, Greatness and all Marvelous Things
wears thin fast.

Even his fans will soon be yawning.
Maintaining our enthusiasm
Will be like a life sentence on Death Row.
Where do we go for solace and consolation?

I dreamed last night 
that I called up George Carlin for suggestions
and he said anything he could offer
would be like wisecracks at a wake.
And that we have to suffer the truth
of having nothing to say that is appropriate
for anguish and mourning.

We have to bear our own grief,
carry our own sorrow,
and recognize that upon us
is the realization of all that has been lost
and will not be recovered in our lifetime
or that of those who will follow us.

A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be consoled because she has lost them.

 George Carlin is a man of great wisdom even in death.

Some things we have to live with.
Actually, it is a LOT of things!
And our ability to do that flows
from our patience with things as they are.

Rick Rubin says, "Patience is developed
much like awareness. Through an acceptance
of what is."

"Here we are, now what?" is the attitude
that saw us from the caves to here, now.
"Now what?" When answered properly,
is all we need to know and do.

And what we do about being unable to do
anything about the way things are,
is the most important thing we will ever do.

We stand up and meet the day every day.
That is made easier or more difficult
by the attitude we take toward what awaits us
day by day.

We are living toward our death,
and we owe it to ourselves--
and to each other--
to live as well as we can in each situation
as it arises
in every day.

What is keeping that from happening?
What needs to be changed about our attitude
in order to live more fully open to and present with
what is happening in our life each moment
of every day?

Where are we trying to force our way onto the day?
Where are we being patient with how things are?

It is our ability to live well with how things are
that makes the difference.

Good luck with that!

The way of wild things
is always what it needs to be,
how, when and where it needs to be.

Wild things do not interfere
with what needs to happen,
with what is called for
in each situation as it arises,
by inserting their own agenda,
plans, wishes and desires
into the mix
and insisting on their way NOW
regardless of the impact and outcomes.

It took civilization to make that possible.

And, now that it is possible,
it's anyone's guess about how long it will be
before someone with the power at hand
uses it to blow up the world
just because they can.
People are that way.

Wild things would never consider it.

That is only one thing I love about them.

Time moves on,
what are we going to do?
Whatever is called for
in each situation as it arises
without interfering with 
what needs to be done,
when, where and how it needs to be done.

This is called doing our part,
and keeping up with the times
that are at hand!

We will never outlive the shame of Donald Trump.
Or the horror of the voters who elected him being proud of him.
How could this come to be?

The Whigs became the Patriots,
but the Tories were always anti-democracy.
Remember that from the beginning
there have been those who hated democracy.

And have been working all this time 
to bring to bear what is being borne out
in Donald Trump.

We need a consultation with ourselves
on a regular basis
in order to maintain our balance and harmony,
our direction and flow,
and our life line with our intuition,
original nature,
innate virtues (The things we do best
and enjoy doing most),
and our inherent imagination.

How often do you do what you love to do?
When is the last time you did it?

Regular consultations with ourselves 
keeps us on track.
On the path.
At one with the Tao.
In service to what is called for
in each situation as it arises.

Which is all Jesus ever did.
You can look it up.

Jesus was one with himself,
and that made him one with God.
Same goes for us.
When we are one with ourselves,
we are one with Jesus
and one with God.

We are Jesus and God!!!
At least, you can't spit on the difference.

True to ourselves
is true to Jesus,
is true to God.

Jesus' prayer,
"Thy will, not mine, be done,"
Was a prayer to his intuition.
And to God.
Our intuition is the voice of God within.
To be one with God is to be one with our intuition.

Jesus was true to himself,
true to God
True to his intuition.

And all of that is right there for us to do as well.
"There's nothing to it but to do it!" (Maya Angelo)

We walk through death and dying all the time.
We should be accustomed to it by now.
We should be paying homage to it every day.
We should honor the sacred scenes
being enacted all around us.

Life is sacred!
Death is at the door!
Do not miss the holy moments as they come upon us!
Pause with the acknowledgment 
of gratitude and appreciation,
of wonder and respect for what has come,
has been
and is going as we watch--
as we are going as we watch--
and be thankful for it all!

The natural world just happens 
according to the rhythms and circumstances
of nature,
with everything settling into its role
commensurate with its needs and its possibilities.

The "civilized" world is prone to war,
revenge, revolt, renunciation, repudiation,
getting even, paying back, making sorry
and being in control.

The foundation and thrust of Taoism/Zen
(Zen is Taoism with appreciation for enlightenment)
is the return to doing things naturally.

One Taoist spokesperson, Zhuangz, said, 
“To be free, individuals must discard 
rigid distinctions between good and bad, 
right and wrong, 
and follow a course of action 
not motivated by gain or striving. 
When one ceases to judge events 
as good or bad, 
man-made suffering disappears 
and natural suffering is embraced as part of life.”

I retired after forty years and six months in the ministry
(And that was nearly fifteen years ago.)
My thing was and is hermeneutics.
I'm still going at it.
You can't retire from your thing.
You can't quit.
No vacations.
No escape.
It's wonderful.
We are here to do our thing.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I'm saying, "Find your thing
and serve it with your life!"

The thing you can't help doing.
The thing you can't stop doing.
The thing you are about.
You know, that thing.

My thing is hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics is about knowing 
and saying what's what,
and getting people together 
with the truth of their life.
Even though nobody cares,
onderstands,
Or knows what you are talking about.

I'm talking about crucial matters,
and they are looking for Billy Graham
and Joel Osteen.

It doesn't slow me down.

Who we are and what we are (to be) about
are the only things that matter.
Being who we are doing what we are (to be) about,
are the only things that matter.
That is who I am and what I am (to be) about.

Hermeneutics.

Saying what's what and what we are (to be) about.

Generally, what we are about
is diversion, distraction, denial, escape, addiction.
That has to change.
The way we change it is to quit wanting.
Wanting has us where we are.
Quitting wanting cold turkey
is the solution to all of our problems today,
everyday.

Live without wanting by flipping the switch,
turning the light around--
and start living in service to what is called for
in each situation as it arises, no matter what--
which means: Never Mind What You Want!

I've been saying this for a thousand years,
it's time people started listening. 

What would it take
for Donald Trump to be happy?

His chronic dissatisfaction 
and his propensity for finding
scapegoats everywhere
keeps everything up in the air
with nowhere to land.

Everything is somebody's fault.
And Trump is going to make them pay.

His fans adore him because The Trump Show
takes their minds off their own malaise--
and their inescapable ultimate realization
that their life is their own fault.

The same thing, of course, applies to Trump.
He is the witless victim of his own life.
And can't stand it.
And the world pays for it.
Just by being there.

The values at the heart of Democracy
have to be worthy of Democracy
or it's just another Autocracy
pretending it isn't,
fooling no one.
Why pretend?